Painted and unpainted surfaces on automobiles, trucks, buses, vans, off-road equipment, construction equipment and other moving vehicles such as marine, military and aeronautical crafts are subject to damage from acid rain, flying road debris, insects, bird droppings, tree rosin, tar, asphalt, UV light, dirt, pollution and many other environmental and mechanical influences.
A number of polymer systems exist that can be used to formulate a temporary coating, such as nitrocellulose, acrylics, vinyl chloride, alkyds, polyesters, polyvinyl butyrals, polyvinyl formals, polyvinyl acetates, shellac, ethylene vinyl chlorides, urethanes and ethylene acrylic acids. Many of the polymer systems mentioned require very strong solvents to remove the coatings once dried. Consequently, these strong solvents damage the painted surface to which the coatings are applied.
For automobiles, a protective fabric is often used and applied to the front of the vehicle to provide protection against insects and flying debris from the road during normal use. The protective fabric drastically changes the appearance of the automobile.
Specialized silicone polishes and protectants are sold to protect the painted surfaces on automobiles from the damaging effects of acid rain and other environmental influences. Paint protectants based on silicones generally last only for a small number of car washes before they are washed away. Silicone protectants do not protect painted finishes against damage from flying road debris, insects, bird droppings, tree rosin, tar, asphalt and many other environmental and mechanical influences.
Peelable coatings have been evaluated in the market place but are not popular as they cannot be easily removed from painted surfaces after having been left on surfaces exposed to the environment for some time. Peelable coatings are also expensive to install.
Some wax based coatings have been used to protect painted and unpainted surfaces on automobiles during storage and shipment. The wax based coatings are very limited in their applications as they tend to accumulate dust and dirt, and are aesthetically not appealing. They require removal with solvents such as aliphatic hydrocarbons which raises concerns with respect to environmental compliance and safety with respect to flammability issues.
The first generation of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) automotive finishes in 1924 were based on nitrocellulose lacquer. Alkyd enamels were the next improvement, followed by the introduction of acrylic lacquers in 1956. In the 1960's acrylic enamels were introduced, followed by several variants and refinements. Metallic colors were introduced in 1980, using the concept of a basecoat with a clear top coat. Soon after, mica based pearlescent colors were introduced, followed by the tri-coat concept, which used a pearlescent layer sandwiched between a solid basecoat and a clear top coat.
Present day OEM automotive finishes are high temperature thermoset coatings usually baked at 150 to 160 degrees Centigrade. The common generic categories of these paints are thermosetting acrylic; reflow thermoplastic acrylic and high bake alkyd melamine.
Present day automotive re-finishes are based on either lacquer type paints or crosslinking type paints. The lacquer types are nitrocellulose or acrylic based, and have mostly been phased out in the developed markets due to technical and environmental reasons but are still often used in the developing nations. The crosslinking type paints are based on a variety of chemistries such as: alkyds; alkyds with melamine; alkyds with isocyanate; acrylic enamels and most commonly acrylic urethane. There are many other refinements and modifications to these generic categories.
A need exists in the market for a specialized clear or pigmented temporary coating that when applied to painted or unpainted surfaces will protect the surface from harmful effects of environmental exposure and light mechanical abuse. The coating should be durable, yet easily removable without damaging the underlying substrate. The temporary coating should not affect the appearance of the painted finish except for adding some gloss, and should be able to be buffed and compounded to blend into the existing finish. The temporary protective coating could also be pigmented or colored to match the existing color and gloss of the painted finish using conventional colorants used by body shops. In certain cases automotive coatings contain special metallic or pearlized pigments that are used to obtain special effects. The specialized coatings should be able to be formulated to allow the metallic and pearlized pigments to orientate in the coating to obtain the required appearance effects. Temporary coatings on the market today are not easily removable without harming the underlying substrate, and do not have the necessary durability and adhesion properties to remain intact for even a short time.
A need also exists in the market for a method to remove the temporary protective finish, once the benefits of it are completed. Many removers exist in the market place such as paint strippers that can easily remove a temporary coating. However, such commercial paint strippers will damage the painted finishes to which the temporary coating is applied. The need is for the temporary coating to be easily removable with a special non-polluting biodegradable remover, without causing any harm to the underlying substrate. The wax based coatings require removal with solvents such as aliphatic hydrocarbons which raise concerns with respect to environmental compliance and fire hazard.